1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to communications in computer systems and reduction of errors therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
In prior art computer systems, such as those incorporating a communication link operating in accordance with the HyperTransport™ I/O Link Specification, the protocol allows control packets to be inserted into a data packet or immediately after another control packet and before the data associated with that control packet is transferred. In the HyperTransport link protocol a control line is associated with each 16 bits of data. The control line identifies whether the packet on the link is a control packet or a data packet. However, when a control packet is followed immediately by another control packet, because control packets may be of different lengths, there is no way to distinguish between the first control packet and the second control packet without examining the contents of the first control packet to determine its length.